Grove Hill Care Home

Grove Hill Care Home is a residential care home providing accommodation for persons who require nursing and personal care for up to 27 people in an adapted, two storey building. The service provides support to adults living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 22 people living at the home.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

There had been significant improvements since the last inspection. A new registered manager had been in post since January 2022 and had addressed the concerns we found on the previous inspection.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

Assessments of people’s needs were accurate and up to date. Care plans were accurate and daily care records were completed with enough detail to demonstrate people received the care they needed. Records were legible. Any unexplained injuries were investigated and recorded.

The registered manager monitored the quality of the service. Effective monitoring systems were in place and information from monitoring and audits were used to drive improvements. This included checks designed to keep people safe from harm. For example, repositioning charts, used to reduce the risk of pressure ulcers. These charts were analysed by the registered manager to identify patterns and trends.

Most people living with dementia could give us limited feedback on their views about the service. They did, however, confirm they were happy with the support they received and liked the staff who cared for them. Relatives gave us their experiences of the service and were complimentary about the service.

Staff felt supported by the registered manager. The registered manager had arranged training to enhance staff skills and knowledge. People’s individual dietary preferences and needs were clearly recorded, and people were encouraged to eat healthily. People were supported to access health and social care professionals when needed.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 4 November 2021) and there were breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 19 and 20 May 2021, in which we found a breach of legal requirements ; Regulation 17 Good governance of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had made the required improvements and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Effective and Well-led which contain those requirements. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has improved to Good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Grove Hill Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

Grove Hill Care Home is a residential care home providing personal care to 22 older people, in one adapted building at the time of the inspection. Most people in the home were living with dementia. The service can support up to 27 people.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People were not always supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not always support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not support this practice.

Assessments of people’s needs were not always accurate or complete. Care plans were not always accurate and daily care records were not always completed with enough detail to demonstrate people received the care they needed.

The registered manager monitored the quality of the service. However, this monitoring was not always effective and the audit process did not include a system to ensure staff were undertaking checks on people. Records were not always legible and complete to demonstrate what care and treatment had been provided to people.

People were supported in line with their support plans and risks to people were managed. Most people were living with dementia could give us limited feedback on their views about the service. They did, however, confirm they were happy with the support they received and liked the staff who cared them. Relatives gave us their experiences of the service and were complimentary about the service.

Medicines were managed safely, and there were safe infection and prevention and control practices (IPC) being followed.

There were sufficient staff deployed to meet people’s needs and staff were recruited safely.

Staff felt supported by the registered manager. The registered manager had arranged training to enhance staff skills and knowledge. People’s individual dietary preferences and needs were clearly recorded, and people were encouraged to eat healthily. People were supported to access health and social care professionals when needed.

People were cared for by a caring and committed staff group who throughout the inspection referred to people as ‘family’

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

The last rating for the service under the previous provider was Good, published on 19/09/2019.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part by a notification of a specific incident. Following which a person using the service sustained a serious injury. This inspection did not examine the circumstances of the incident.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the Effective and Well-Led sections of this report. You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

The service was registered under a new provider last year therefore has not been rated yet.

We found the following examples of good practice.

People were supported by a team of regular staff who had infection control training and understood the importance of adhering to good practice guidance. People knew staff well which helped with staff needing to wear face masks as people were still able to recognize staff well.

Staff were able to explain the correct procedure for donning and doffing of personal protective equipment such as masks, aprons and gloves.

Staff were well supported and praised the management team, comments included; “If worried I can always speak to the owner or manager, we’re like a family here” and “We never run out of PPE, everyone is supportive, I feel at home (here).”

The provider ensured there was a sufficient stock of appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) and it complied with the quality standards.

People were only admitted to the service when a negative COVID-19 test result had been received.

The provider ensured regular testing took place for both people living at the service and staff. The management were aware of zoning guidelines and were aware of the need to implement zoning if needed.

The provider ensured people’s relatives were kept informed and provided updates, for example, around the visiting arrangements.

Feedback received from an external professional was positive and demonstrated the staff followed good practice guidance.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.